SDRS Tea-Up Machine Brews Tea From Loose Leaves in 45 Seconds

Japanese manufacturer SDRS plans to begin mass production of Tea-Up in late November. It is a fully automatic commercial machine built specifically for tea and aimed at hotels, cafés and restaurants.

The company says straight tea takes about 45 seconds and milk tea about 60. Hand-brewing is usually considered ideal at around three minutes of steeping, so Tea-Up needs roughly a quarter of that time. For comparison, hands-on reports of the loose-leaf machines in Japanese convenience stores put the wait at about 1.5 to 2 minutes after pressing the button.

How it gets there

Tea-Up uses what SDRS calls a "jumping-capable straight chamber", which lets leaves rise and fall in the water so they are evenly infused. That process is not unique, since convenience-store machines also rely on it. The speed comes from a combination of other elements: a hot-water tank with high-temperature control, plus four controlled variables: water volume, steeping, stirring and resting time. In effect, the tricks of hand brewing become machine settings. Finer leaves extract faster, but SDRS has not said how it sizes the particles.

Cleaning and specs

SDRS says daily cleaning time is cut by about 60% compared with the automatic cleaning of its Krista II coffee machine. The milk path is washed using a built-in cleaning-agent cartridge, operated with a lever and the touch panel. The milk nozzle moves automatically to prevent milk from getting into straight tea and to stop drips.

The menu can show up to 64 items and store up to 96 recipes, covering hot, iced and milk tea. The main unit measures 300 mm wide, 600 mm deep and 850 mm high, with a separate milk unit attached. Pricing has not been announced.

SDRS changed its name in April 2026 from Sanden Retail Systems. It is also behind the frozen-food vending machine Dohiemon and, since February, the capsule-toy vending machine Gachaemon. Its roots go back to ice cream stockers and refrigerated showcases, and in 1961 it made fountain-style juice vending machines.